Swooshing Blades of Death
by BrioScotty
Summary: Prompt: Rachel and Quinn are already together and Rachel has never gone ice skating so Quinn decides to take her. Falling down, teasing and fluff and happiness. Also angels.


Rachel eyes the scene before her warily and takes another deep breath. Beside her, a suitably wrapped up blonde is grinning and reaching out her hand. Rachel takes a step back, wobbling slightly, and grabs onto the partition separating her from what she believes to be her untimely demise. She begins to imagine what the newspaper headlines will say and the image of her fathers in matching black suits, weeping at her graveside, flits into her mind.

"Wait!" she exclaims, causing her girlfriend to roll her eyes.

"Rachel, we've been here for almost forty minutes. It's time."

"But…" Rachel squeaks, taking another unsteady step backwards.

"Rachel, sweetheart, I'm freezing. If I don't start moving soon, I'm going to get hypothermia…"

"And _I'm_the dramatic one…" Rachel mutters under her breath. Quinn fixes her with a look.

"Fine," Quinn says and takes a step away from Rachel, resisting the urge to throw her hands up in the air in frustration, "You can sit at the side like a gigantic baby. I'm going." Quinn takes another few steps and then pushes herself away from the side, shooting off across the ice. Rachel watches as her girlfriend completes a couple of laps of the outdoor rink, grumbling under her breath about helmets and knee pads.

Quinn comes to a halt, spraying up ice as she brakes, and stretches her arms over the barrier towards her still-reluctant girlfriend.

"Please?"

Rachel looks away from Quinn's pleading eyes and sighs wearily.

"Rachel, I've seen you roller skate. This isn't so different…"

"Isn't so different?" Rachel turns back to face the grinning blonde. "Rollerskating does not involve swooshing blades of death!"

"Swooshing blades of death?" Quinn snorts, clutching her stomach as she doubles over. "Swooshing…"

"Fine, mock me," Rachel folds her arms and narrows her eyes as Quinn continues to laugh and loses her balance slightly. The next few seconds appear to slow down as Quinn's arm flail and she tumbles backwards, landing with a thud on the ice. Rachel leaps to her feet and wobbles over to the barrier. "Quinn!" Her expression quickly turns from one of concern to one of annoyance as she watches the blonde gasp for air as giggles burst from her mouth.

"I'm sorry, Rach… I'm sorry," the still-giggling blonde says in a placating tone as she pulls herself up off the ice. Rachel bites her bottom lip and nods at last, mumbling under her breath. "What was that?"

"Don't let go," Rachel repeats, marginally louder than the first time. Quinn breaks into another wide smile.

"I promise," she says, holding out her gloved hand to the brunette and skating to the gap in the barrier as Rachel takes the three tremulous steps forward, teetering on the edge.

"I'm going to get into a lot of trouble if I break anything… or if I lose fingers…"

"Rachel!" Quinn says, exasperation creeping back into her voice. "You are _not_ going to break anything. You are_not_going to lose any fingers. We're going to go around the rink once, okay? I'm going to skate backwards and hold both of your hands. You're not going to fall because I will not let you. Okay?"

"Okay," Rachel squeaks, "But what if…"

"No. Get on the ice!" Quinn skates even closer to the edge, taking both of Rachel's hands. "Ready?"

"Yes. No. Yes…" Rachel makes a face and takes another deep breath. "Yes."

"Okay, step onto the ice, right foot first. Nice and slowly."

Quinn watches as a shaking foot lowers itself onto the ice and Rachel visibly exhales.

"Now the other foot…" Rachel hesitates, starting to shake her head. "I've got you, Rach. I won't let anything happen to you."

As soon as the brunette has both feet on the ice, Quinn starts to skate backwards at a snail's pace and Rachel's face contorts to one of complete panic.

"What are you doing?" she exclaims, legs and back tensing up entirely.

"I'm just moving out of the way so that other people can skate," Quinn smiles as another couple take to the ice, effortlessly whizzing round hand in hand. "I need you to relax, just a little. The more you tense up, the more likely you are to fall."

"Okay," Rachel nods, ignoring Quinn's advice and tightening her muscles again.

Quinn chuckles.

"What?" Rachel asks, eyes darkening quickly.

"I still can't believe you've never been ice-skating. You're twenty."

"My busy extra-curricular schedule as a child didn't leave much free time for flailing around a sheet of ice… between ballet and tap and singing and jazz… and I think my dad had some sort of unfortunate ice-fishing accident when he was younger. He used to go white and stop talking if we drove past the Lima rink. I asked my papa about it but he would tell me that it's just one of those things we don't talk about."

"Right," Quinn says, nodding slightly, "But we're not ice-fishing. We're in New York, your favourite place in the whole world. And you're with me. And I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"Okay," Rachel replies in a small voice and leans forward to peck Quinn's cheek, "I trust you."

"Good," Quinn beams. "Now I'm going to guide you at first, okay? All you have to do is push off on your right foot. That's all." Rachel nods and takes another deep breath, putting her weight onto her right leg. Quinn starts to move backwards, pulling Rachel with her. "Now the left leg."

Rachel grins, glancing down at her feet.

"I'm skating!"

"You are," Quinn nods. "Want to go a little faster?"

A group of small children pass by, one of them does a double-toe loop.

"Show-off," Rachel mutters. "I could do that if we weren't on ice."

"I know, babe," Quinn says. "Focus on me, please. Let's go a little faster, okay? Otherwise they'll be closing the rink and we won't have finished a lap." Quinn starts to skate a little faster.

"You're showing off too! You have no idea where you're going. You could trip over an uneven piece of ice at any second and then we'll both fall… oh god, we're going to fall!"

"Rachel!" Quinn shouts, drawing curious glances from some of the skaters. "I've been skating since I was four. Now, can we please speed up, just a little?"

"Okay," Rachel whispers, tightening her grip on Quinn's hands as the blonde increases her speed. "Can you do that turn thingy that the kid did?"

"Yes, it's one of the easiest jumps you can do in figure skating," Quinn says, rolling her eyes off Rachel's incredulous look. "I competed, okay? Up until high school."

"I had no idea!" Rachel says her face lighting up. "You know what? After this lap, I'll go sit down again and you can show off until…"

"You're not getting off this rink until you are skating on your own," Quinn says, shaking her head. "You can do this. You're Rachel Berry. You can do anything."

"Anything that doesn't involve the swooshing blades of death," Rachel grumbles. Quinn lets out a snort and speeds up, pulling Rachel along. They complete a lap of the rink and Rachel exhales with relief.

"Okay, now we're going to skate side-by-side," Quinn says, letting go of Rachel's right hand. "Is that okay?" Rachel nods quickly. "Just remember that at the end of this, we get to go snuggle in bed until we get warm again. Now, right foot first."

In silence, they make their way around the outside of the rink.

"You promised me hot chocolate," Rachel says, after half a lap with no stumbles.

"Hot chocolate then snuggles," Quinn concedes, smiling down at her girlfriend. "Thanks for coming with me. I haven't skated in a couple of years."

"I'm sorry for freaking out so much," Rachel says with an embarrassed smile. "It's actually pretty easy… and kinda romantic. I guess."

"Well, yeah. I guess," the blonde chuckles and gives Rachel's hand a squeeze. The pair complete another couple of laps, going slightly faster each time until Rachel feels confident enough to let go of Quinn's hand.

Five seconds pass before she grabs at Quinn, glancing around wildly when she notices that the blonde isn't in her immediate vicinity.

"Quinn?" Rachel's head darts back and forth, unable to spot Quinn's bright red woolly hat amongst the crowd. The brunette's legs tense up and she tries to skate towards the barrier but trips. A few seconds of total panic follow as her legs take on a mind of their own and she skids around the ice, hands flying out to grab at nothing.

As she tumbles towards the ice, a pair of arms circle her waist and a voice whispers in her ear.

"I've got you."

After she regained her balance, Rachel twists round to glare at her girlfriend who is still holding tightly to the brunette.

"That wasn't funny, Quinn. I was falling!"

"But I caught you," Quinn says, pushing Rachel backwards to the barrier. "I told you I would and I did."

"It was still mean," Rachel pouts, trying to break out of Quinn's embrace. The blonde holds on securely though, ducking her head down to press a kiss against Rachel's cheek. The brunette sighs, "Mean." Quinn's lips move to the corner of Rachel's mouth.

"I'm sorry," Quinn whispers, lips now ghosting over Rachel's; the brunette's eyes close, "Won't happen again."

"Good," Rachel's voice is barely a whisper as the gap between their head disappears and they begin to kiss.  
>"Am I forgiven?" Quinn asks, resting her forehead against the brunette's. She nibbles softly on Rachel's bottom lip as her body presses flush against the shorter woman's.<p>

"Mmhmm," Rachel whimpers.

"Great, let's go," Quinn says, taking Rachel's hands again and guiding her to the gap in the barrier. "Oh wait!"

Leaving Rachel next to the benches, Quinn jumps back onto the ice and quickly skates a couple of laps before executing a perfect double toe loop and a single axel. Rachel's jaw drops as Quinn skates back to her.

"What?" Quinn asks, grinning at her momentarily speechless girlfriend.

"Show-off!"


End file.
